Fire forces evacuation in Marlborough

BY CLARE CONNELL

Fire crews, helicopters and bulldozers worked through the night and are still battling a large forest fire that has threatened homes and destroyed a large pine plantation near Canvastown.

The fire began on a steep hillside behind Te Hora Pa Rd, off State Highway 6 opposite Canvastown School, about 10.30pm last night.

The fire, which was still raging this morning, is estimated to cover up to 30 hectares of private pine plantation belonging to Pelorus dairy farmers Tom and Noeline Bryant.

About 30 firefighters from the Rai Valley, Linkwater, Havelock and Renwick volunteer fire brigades as well as the Canvastown Rural Fire Party battled the blaze.

About 40 residents from 12 homes in Te Hora Pa Rd were evacuated at midnight to nearby Te Hora marae.

At daybreak, four helicopters and three bulldozers were brought in to help. Six water tankers were being filled from the Pelorus River.

Rai Valley Volunteer Fire Brigade senior station officer Trevor Holstock said that when his crew arrived, thick smoke was circulating and the flames were more than 10 metres high.

"I was quite surprised. When we were coming over the Pelorus Hill, we noticed the red glow in the sky. I thought, 'Oh, bugger'  we realised we were in for a long stint."

When the crew arrived, there was a "breezy" northwesterly, but this had dropped by the time he left at 2am, he said.

Firefighters worked on protecting property during the night, because it was too dangerous to fight the forest fire in the dark.

Mr Holstock said the fire was "right up within metres" of one property. Sprinklers were set up on the front lawn to protect the home.

The fire is near the site of a massive forest fire in March 2006 that took weeks to fully extinguish and resulted in the loss of 80ha of trees. Local residents were evacuated and kept out of their homes for several days while that blaze was brought under control.

Tom and Noeline Bryant were this morning "devastated" to find their pine plantation burning.

"I've seen all the hard work that went on to plant those trees. To see them go up in smoke, it makes you feel a bit sick," said Mrs Bryant.

"I know we are insured but there's still going to be lots of work to replant it."

The couple live 5km past Canvastown, and about 3km from where the fire broke out.

Mrs Bryant arrived at the site about 7.30am to find two helicopters ready to take off.

She said she smelt smoke during the night, and a sharemilker on the property came to let her know about the blaze.

The plantation was about 10 years old, but Mrs Bryant did not know its exact value.

"Hopefully, there's still something standing by the end of the day."

Mr Holstock said the fire appeared to have started below power lines, but he did not know the cause.

Marlborough Lines operations manager Brian Tapp said Marlborough Lines had turned off power to the area around Daltons Bridge, near Canvastown, at the request of firefighters for safety reasons, but he was not aware of any suggestion that power lines may have started the fire. Power was due to be turned back on this morning as the fire danger subsided.

A Department of Conservation fire crew had taken over management of the fire site this morning.

- The Marlborough Express